Former reporter to discuss new book

The San Diego-based Web site StyleSubstanceSoul.com will host an evening with author Masha Hamilton at 7 p.m. March 10 at The Book Works in the Flower Hill Promenade on Via de la Valle in Del Mar.

Hamilton, the author of four novels, will read from and sign her new book, "31 Hours," a Washington Post selection for one of the best books of the year and an IndieNext Pick by independent booksellers. The story follows the 31 hours before a young American man is scheduled to commit an act of terrorism.

Hamilton has worked as a foreign correspondent in the Middle East for the Associated Press, in Moscow, as a correspondent for the Los Angeles Times and NBC/Mutual Radio, and as a reporter in Afghanistan in 2004. She recently founded the Afghan Women's Writing Project, which helps young Afghan women learn about writing, find their voices, and share their work in a safe forum.

Hamilton is the author of three previous novels: "Staircase of a Thousand Steps," "The Distance Between Us" and "The Camel Bookmobile." She lives in Brooklyn, N.Y.

"We have been longtime fans of Masha's work," said Lois Alter Mark of Style

SubstanceSoul.com. "Her books resonate so strongly with our readers that when we featured "The Camel Bookmobile" in one of our first newsletters, the response was astounding, with women writing in from all over the world to ask how they could send literary care packages to the people of Kenya."